Dennis Holloway, An Architect in Northern New Mexico

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3D Motion Grid City Again

Collaboration Thesis with architecture students Walter Brown,
Frank Fitzgibbons, Peter Forbes,
and sociology Phd. candidate, Joanne Vanek,
University of Michigan, 1966

Drawing of 3D Motion Grid City by Dennis Holloway, pen and ink on vellum, 24" x 36".

It was the 60s! We were seniors in college, full of the Beattles, Stones, U.K. Archigram Group, the Japanese Metabolists, anti-Vietnam sentiments, and Espresso coffee. We were designing a new vision for a three-dimensional urbanism--a utopia--that would be our future....

Our idea was that urbanism should not sprawl on the American land, but should be scooped up and organized within high-density infrastructure nodes that would be surrounded by pristine nature, farmland, and recreational uses (shown here in black). Shown on this page is the team's vision of an "ideal city" for 30,000 people. Housing is located on the exterior surface (yellow) to gain the best light and air. Below the habitat surface are all the other functions of the city including commercial, institutional, educational, and vehicular. The tetrahedral mainframe structure that supports everything was also envisioned as a matrix of escalators and moving sidewalks.

Our vision of this future has not yet come to pass, but each of us still holds a dream for a better American urbanism....

Model of 3D Motion Grid City Again.

Your comments and feedback are welcome. Please contact Dennis Holloway, Architect, via e-mail:

archvr@cybermesa.com